Hi there - this is an urgent request for information (you'll see why in the 'Background' section below). Any information, experiences, insights would be greatly appreciated.
Background:
I am a Canadian citizen by birth, living with my South African husband and our child in South Africa (for 4 yrs). We were married in BC, in 2011 during a 4 week visit. Child born in 2011 who has SA and Canadian citizenship.
We contacted CIC Canada on numerous occasions over the past year to verify that we would be able to apply for my spouses' PR whilst in Canada and that we did not have to start this application from outside Canada. They confirmed that this would be our personal decision based on our circumstances and that the inland application process would also be accepted should we choose to have gone that route. We then decided that we would travel to Canada with spouse having a visitor’s visa, then apply for his PR after arriving in the country.
In hind sight we "stupidly" sold our assets and other personal belongings, spouse resigned from his employment, and he applied for his visitor’s visa 6 weeks before our travel date, which was supposed to be in June. (His TRV was approved in 5 days last year so we thought this would as straightforward) After we had made numerous attempts to check on the status of his application at CIC Pretoria (South Africa), he was requested to provide further information to the visa officer and promptly did so. He was then told that his passport was ready for collection, of which he did - only to receive a rejection letter to his visitor’s visa application based on the below refusal points:
1 - Length of proposed stay in Canada – requested 5 months
2 - Purpose of stay in Canada – said to visit with my family
3 - Employment status in South Africa – included employment letter but they must have called to confirm and found out that he has resigned.
4 - Dual Intent: failure to prove – nothing was stated in the application
We believe that the Dual intent denial was because when spouse went to ask about the Visitor’s visa 6 weeks prior to receiving the denial, he asked questions to the VO and spilled that we had intent to apply PR inland. We think she must have flagged something on their system that brought up this conversation when his app was being reviewed - is this possible?
We have no personal belongings in SA (already sent to Vancouver, sitting in storage waiting to be cleared), no employment, and no property.
We do not have the option of resettling in SA until an outland application is approved. Our intention is to travel to Canada as soon as possible and apply for his PR whilst in Canada.
Docs submitted in first application:
copy of ID’s, letter of invitation (not notified), bank statements (more than enough funds), letter of employment (was still employed at the time), marriage certificate, plane tickets, NO LETTER OF MOTIVATION WAS INCLUDED.
Questions:
If my spouse has been granted a TRV (after submitting an extremely detailed second application which convinced the VO that they would return to South Africa) then whilst in Canada decides that no, he does not want to go back to SA and he wants to stay in Canada and apply for the Spousal PR inland. Does this "going back on what he originally promised in their TRV application" jeopardize his PR application? Will CIC then say that because he lied in their TRV app that they will now deny his Spousal PR application?
Spouse would obviously keep "status" as a visitor before the TRV expired and submit PR/WP/extension to VV in the same app as the PR.
Do the Visa offices keep a record of everyone who's applied and their denial and why? Will they refer to this when they see another application?
Is there and "acceptable" length of time that one should wait before re-applying? .... we would have been waiting about one month
Should we hire an immigration lawyer (who are all ridiculously expensive and only out to get money), or can we do this ourselves? What about getting one of them to simply review our re-application?
Concerns:
- That now we don't have employment, how do we confirm employment status? Does a Business Plan for a new business suffice? Has anyone applied that was unemployed or in the process of starting their own business?
- No land ownership, and no lease agreement - residing with spouses' parents in a new city from original application residence.
- They have no ground on their Dual Intent denial point - there was no references to applying inland for PR after we arrived in Canada
- will the VO who originally review his app have made a note of her opinion that we have Dual intent and would this be ground of refusal in app #2
New docs we want to submit with application #2
- spouse passport copy – entry and exit to Canada from last year , and last years visa
- my passport copy (candadian)
- child Passport copy
- Marriage certificate
- Visa refusal letter
- mother letter of Invitation - notarized
- father letter of Invitation (diff address) - notarized....is there anything additional that she should write in here??
- Kelowna, BC – MP letter
- Detailed Travel Itinerary of all family members we want to visit and their addresses - proving that it would take 4 months to visit all of them
- Plane tickets - return date the same as the original application, departure date different because of refusal
- Spouses father confirmation of current residence, family members – commitment to residence (include passport copy and notarized), and that we live with them and will be returning.
- Infant paediatrician & occupational therapist letter stating that our child needs both of his parents to take care of him (because of his medical conditions)
- Spouse’s business plan – to show intent to start own business upon return (from years ago - thought it could help prove that we have intent on returning even though we don't)
- Retirement Investment account statement
- Bank Accounts
- Certificate of Medical Aid membership
- Car repayments
- Previous employer long-term Share Scheme letter
Is too much information? Are they going to think ...."is this person trying to hide something"??
Thank you in advance to anyone who can provide some insight to any of the above points.
ps: does anyone else think that the CIC reviews all of these forums to try and figure out how to "catch" all of us trying to live in our home country with the spouse of our choice?!?!?!
Background:
I am a Canadian citizen by birth, living with my South African husband and our child in South Africa (for 4 yrs). We were married in BC, in 2011 during a 4 week visit. Child born in 2011 who has SA and Canadian citizenship.
We contacted CIC Canada on numerous occasions over the past year to verify that we would be able to apply for my spouses' PR whilst in Canada and that we did not have to start this application from outside Canada. They confirmed that this would be our personal decision based on our circumstances and that the inland application process would also be accepted should we choose to have gone that route. We then decided that we would travel to Canada with spouse having a visitor’s visa, then apply for his PR after arriving in the country.
In hind sight we "stupidly" sold our assets and other personal belongings, spouse resigned from his employment, and he applied for his visitor’s visa 6 weeks before our travel date, which was supposed to be in June. (His TRV was approved in 5 days last year so we thought this would as straightforward) After we had made numerous attempts to check on the status of his application at CIC Pretoria (South Africa), he was requested to provide further information to the visa officer and promptly did so. He was then told that his passport was ready for collection, of which he did - only to receive a rejection letter to his visitor’s visa application based on the below refusal points:
1 - Length of proposed stay in Canada – requested 5 months
2 - Purpose of stay in Canada – said to visit with my family
3 - Employment status in South Africa – included employment letter but they must have called to confirm and found out that he has resigned.
4 - Dual Intent: failure to prove – nothing was stated in the application
We believe that the Dual intent denial was because when spouse went to ask about the Visitor’s visa 6 weeks prior to receiving the denial, he asked questions to the VO and spilled that we had intent to apply PR inland. We think she must have flagged something on their system that brought up this conversation when his app was being reviewed - is this possible?
We have no personal belongings in SA (already sent to Vancouver, sitting in storage waiting to be cleared), no employment, and no property.
We do not have the option of resettling in SA until an outland application is approved. Our intention is to travel to Canada as soon as possible and apply for his PR whilst in Canada.
Docs submitted in first application:
copy of ID’s, letter of invitation (not notified), bank statements (more than enough funds), letter of employment (was still employed at the time), marriage certificate, plane tickets, NO LETTER OF MOTIVATION WAS INCLUDED.
Questions:
If my spouse has been granted a TRV (after submitting an extremely detailed second application which convinced the VO that they would return to South Africa) then whilst in Canada decides that no, he does not want to go back to SA and he wants to stay in Canada and apply for the Spousal PR inland. Does this "going back on what he originally promised in their TRV application" jeopardize his PR application? Will CIC then say that because he lied in their TRV app that they will now deny his Spousal PR application?
Spouse would obviously keep "status" as a visitor before the TRV expired and submit PR/WP/extension to VV in the same app as the PR.
Do the Visa offices keep a record of everyone who's applied and their denial and why? Will they refer to this when they see another application?
Is there and "acceptable" length of time that one should wait before re-applying? .... we would have been waiting about one month
Should we hire an immigration lawyer (who are all ridiculously expensive and only out to get money), or can we do this ourselves? What about getting one of them to simply review our re-application?
Concerns:
- That now we don't have employment, how do we confirm employment status? Does a Business Plan for a new business suffice? Has anyone applied that was unemployed or in the process of starting their own business?
- No land ownership, and no lease agreement - residing with spouses' parents in a new city from original application residence.
- They have no ground on their Dual Intent denial point - there was no references to applying inland for PR after we arrived in Canada
- will the VO who originally review his app have made a note of her opinion that we have Dual intent and would this be ground of refusal in app #2
New docs we want to submit with application #2
- spouse passport copy – entry and exit to Canada from last year , and last years visa
- my passport copy (candadian)
- child Passport copy
- Marriage certificate
- Visa refusal letter
- mother letter of Invitation - notarized
- father letter of Invitation (diff address) - notarized....is there anything additional that she should write in here??
- Kelowna, BC – MP letter
- Detailed Travel Itinerary of all family members we want to visit and their addresses - proving that it would take 4 months to visit all of them
- Plane tickets - return date the same as the original application, departure date different because of refusal
- Spouses father confirmation of current residence, family members – commitment to residence (include passport copy and notarized), and that we live with them and will be returning.
- Infant paediatrician & occupational therapist letter stating that our child needs both of his parents to take care of him (because of his medical conditions)
- Spouse’s business plan – to show intent to start own business upon return (from years ago - thought it could help prove that we have intent on returning even though we don't)
- Retirement Investment account statement
- Bank Accounts
- Certificate of Medical Aid membership
- Car repayments
- Previous employer long-term Share Scheme letter
Is too much information? Are they going to think ...."is this person trying to hide something"??
Thank you in advance to anyone who can provide some insight to any of the above points.
ps: does anyone else think that the CIC reviews all of these forums to try and figure out how to "catch" all of us trying to live in our home country with the spouse of our choice?!?!?!
